To the editor:

To my friends on the Right… This country was founded on compromise from the start. “Left” and “Right” are more modern terms, but the tension has been there from the get go. My side may label Trump a fascist. Your side may label Harris a communist. But, neither are either of those things. We’ve been a mixed economy from the start. We are not raw capitalist nor raw socialist. We have private business (from P and G to mom and pop stores) and public service (from schools to fire houses). You could insult the former as evil capitalist or the latter as pie in the sky socialist. But the truth is, you need both.

The argument, really, is what is the best mix of both. I believe universal health care would allow entrepreneurs to leave stale corporations who keep them chained to their desks with health care plans, free to innovate future enterprises in their garages, knowing their families will be okay if they get ill. Future enterprises that I believe can fuel our private sector economy. You believe universal health care will stifle innovation within health care and lead us down a road to raw communism.

The truth – indeed the balance created by the tension between us – is somewhere in the middle. As the Founding Fathers intended when they launched this great American experiment. The danger, I think, that arose when the World War II generation left politics, is the vilifying of those who stand on the other side. We’re still all Americans. And I believe, sincerely, that most of us want what we think is best for the country. Reagan and O’Neill were “friends after five.” They tipped martinis together. My preference is to tip jeeps together, and I’ll leave it at that.